Heel and toe:
how to learn it

The problem it solves

When you change down, the engine has to spin faster than it was. If you simply drop the clutch, the difference gets resolved by brute force: the engine brakes the driven wheels abruptly.

In a rear-wheel-drive car, hard on the brakes and starting to turn, that's the worst possible moment. The rear axle is already unloaded by weight transfer; adding a sudden, uneven braking force to it is the recipe for a spin.

Heel and toe solves that: you blip the throttle while braking, so the engine is already spinning at the right speed when you release the clutch. Engagement is smooth and the car never notices.

How it's done

It all happens at once, which is why it looks hard. Broken down:

1. Right foot on the brake, at whatever pressure that corner needs. This never stops.
2. Left foot depresses the clutch.
3. Without letting off the brake, roll your right foot slightly and give a sharp blip of throttle with the side of your foot or your heel.
4. Select the lower gear.
5. Release the clutch progressively, not abruptly.

The part people get wrong most: brake pressure must stay constant throughout. If you ease off the brake as you blip, you've moved your braking point without meaning to and you'll run wide.

How to practise it without frustration

Trying it straight away at pace guarantees frustration. This works:

1. Stationary in the pits. Not driving: brake, clutch, blip, gear, release. Twenty times. Just the movement.
2. On a straight, no corner. Brake gently from medium speed and drop two gears. No pressure from the racing line.
3. In one slow corner. One corner, the same one, twenty times.
4. Full lap. And here it's normal to forget it in two corners. That's part of the process.

How to know you're doing it right: listen to the engine and watch the car. Done well, there's no jolt as the clutch comes up and the revs rise to the new gear's value without a step. Done badly, you feel a shudder and the rear moves.

It helps a lot to adjust the throttle pedal height so it sits close to the brake: if they're far apart, the movement is awkward because of geometry, not technique.

When you don't need it

• Sequential and dual-clutch gearboxes. The car handles it. In a GT3 you don't have to do anything.
• If the sim has auto-blip enabled. Many have it on by default and do the throttle for you.
• Dropping a single gear at low speed. The rev difference is small and the car absorbs it.

Where it does matter a lot: road cars and classics with a manual gearbox, and especially rear-wheel-drive ones with a big engine. There the difference between doing it and not doing it shows in the telemetry and in your hands.

Common mistakes

• Easing off the brake as you blip. The most common. It changes your braking and runs you wide.
• Too much throttle. Over-rev and the car surges forward as the clutch comes up. A short blip is enough.
• Dropping the clutch. It undoes all the work you just did.
• Dumping all the downshifts at once at the end. You step down through the gears during the braking zone, not all together at the apex.
• Practising it in a race. You learn it in loose sessions. In a race you use what already comes automatically.

Once the movement comes without thinking, the natural next step is trail braking: both happen in the same part of the corner and they complement each other.

Frequently asked